Doc: The U.S. Open isn't for kids

Will Grimmer (left) and caddie Michael Misleh (right) on the 17th tee during the first round of the 2014 U.S. Open golf tournament at Pinehurst Resort Country Club - #2 Course.(Photo: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports)

PINEHURST, N.C. – The U.S. Open is not for kids. Patience, plodding and par – key ingredients for success --all conspire against the natural audacity of youth. Par, after all, is average. Who, at 17 or 21, dreams of average?

When the youthful spirit finds the wall of grown-up patience, you get rounds of golf such as the ones authored Thursday by Will Grimmer and Andrew Dorn, the Cincinnati amateurs who played their first Open rounds Thursday.

Grimmer's debut included eight bogeys, five birdies and two double bogeys. That's ridiculous scoring at an Open. No one does that. Except Grimmer, who is 17 and two months, and either too young to know better or too confident to care. Both, probably.

Dorn, meanwhile shot a more conventional 79 that featured a triple-bogey six on the par-3 9th. He hooked his tee shot out of bounds – "I didn't think there was O.B. on this course,'' he said – and needed three putts to find the cup.

Grimmer shot a 77. It was good, when you consider he played his last nine holes in par, and that he's a junior at Mariemont High School. What were you doing at 17? Probably not what Grimmer is doing.

It was bad, knowing he was 7-over par in his first nine. "What can I say? It was my first nine (holes) of my first Open,'' he said. Grimmer was nervous and calm, frustrated and pleased, deflated and proud, all in the space of five hours. In a tournament that rewards steady play, he made exactly three pars. Grimmer went around the world in 18 holes.

Several hours later Dorn, 21, Moeller guy and Coastal Carolina player, experienced a similar fate. After nine holes, Dorn was averaging 330 yards off the tee, second-best in the field of 156, and was eight shots over par, and 13 off the lead.

Mariemont golfer Will Grimmer shot a 77 in the first round of the U.S. Open. Grimmer says he hopes to have a solid round Friday with a chance to make the cut.

"You have to be really patient and putt well. I got a little frustrated in the middle of the round,'' he said. Between the fifth and ninth holes, Dorn lost seven shots to par. "Out here, you miss a little bit and it's bogey,'' he said.

The U.S. Open comes with the same truths, no matter who you are or whether the setup is four-inch high rough, or the junk they've employed at Pinehurst No. 2: Hit fairways. Hit greens. Don't be aggressive. Make pars. As Bubba Watson noted Thursday, "It's not science. It's just golf.''

The kids and the adults share some of the same pain, if that's any consolation. Banging their golf balls off dirt service roads and through clumps of wiregrass in "waste areas'' that looked like empty, condemned lots, every Open-ite gets helpless at one time or another. Phil or Will or Andrew or Bubba, they're all in this together.

Luke Donald shot 77, same as Grimmer. Watson was only one shot better.

The difference between pro and amateur is a certain consistency. Grimmer was alternately blessed and cursed. He played Pinehurst No. 2 like he was riding The Beast at King's Island.

On his 11th hole of the day, the 507-yard, par-4 No. 2, Grimmer launched his 5-wood approach shot 235 yards, to within 15 feet of the flagstick. Non-golfers have no idea what that means. Golfers know it's like docking a submarine in a Jacuzzi.

On the par-4 12th, Grimmer pushed his 3-wood approach to the right by thismuch. His ball landed in a greenside bunker, from which he barely escaped, blasting only to the front edge of the green. For the crime of being off by a foot or two with his approach, he made a three-putt double bogey 6.

The Open giveth. . .

"I can play with these guys,'' said the 17-year-old Grimmer said after his round.

The Open taketh away. . .

"If you're an average 5- or 10-handicap, no way you're breaking 90 on this course. You have to place your ball in areas that are no more than 15 feet wide, no deeper than 25 or 30 feet. It's not just controlling your landing, it's controlling your spin on the golf ball. And your emotions, in front of thousands of people,'' said Grimmer.

He also three-putted from six feet on No. 17, and finished on the par-3 9th with a birdie. He bogeyed four holes in a row in his first nine, then birdied three in a row on his second nine. And so on.

"My first US Open I have five birdies. If you'd told me I'd have one birdie this week, I'd have been ecstatic. I was nervous, I struggled to start, but I grinded my way through. I could have been 85 real easy, and I turned it into a 77 and gave myself a chance to make the cut tomorrow,'' he said.

Dorn was a little more philosophical. "It's a learning experience,'' he said. "Tomorrow's a new day. That's the great thing about golf.''

Grimmer and Dorn are back at it Friday. Wiser, one hopes, for what happened on Thursday. The Open is a stern master.